Offseason Training - Mark Paaluhi
By: The EVP
Preparing for the upcoming season is always in an adventure within itself. When to start, who to train with,what type of trainer you need to accomplish your goals. After years of experiencing different trainers and training facilities across the country and parts of the world, I have finally narrowed it down. First of all, you need to believe in your trainer! You both need to have an understanding, a common goal, experience in sports and he or she should have an understanding of what goes on in the mind of an athlete.
The facility you train in has to be equipped with the tools necessary for you to accomplish your workout in a safe manner. No matter if your training with high tech equipment or outside with bricks! This reminds me of a time my good friend Nick Hannemann and I were working out with a jump strap system that we put together. We had rubber straps with padding for our shoulders that extended and mounted to a plywood platform. This was supposed to be our make shift version of the Russian jumper! Well,when Nick went to jump, we forgot to mount the plywood to something and the whole thing lifted off the ground and a strap came undone hitting him in the family jewels! Another memory is when our 2000 Olympic gold medalist Eric Fonoimoana was doing jump squats with concrete bricks and it broke and landed on his foot. So in other words...... be safe!
I have had the opportunity to work with some very high-end trainers. These trainers that have worked with pro- athletes in baseball, basketball, football, and hockey. All were working to become quicker, faster and stronger in their sport. During the start of your training, its important to start with the basics. This means you need to begin with light weights and a good cardio workout. You will want to increase your weight lifting as you go. Depending on your ability, you should be able to eventually run for 30 min, with your heart rate up between 70%- 80% of your max. If you can do more, great. Free weights are important because they help with building strength and working the smaller stabilizing muscles. I usually start off training this way for 4-6 weeks. After I have established this base workout, I begin to add my plyometric workout. For me this is done at a training facility here in Hermosa Beach called VERT Training. Vert combines various workouts that help strengthen,stabilize, improve quickness, foot work, and agility. I especially like the vert machine that measures your positive and negative resistance. It will let you know if your pushing yourself or cheating yourself. In combination with VERT, a good 30-40 minute sand workout consisting of plyometrics, sprints, and agility drills. This will help you make your transition from the gym to your beach volleyball training. When you start training consistently on the beach, I suggest taking your cardio workout to the beach to help keep the sand legs strong. During the season I hit the weights 3 times a week and keep a good 70%-80% max on my weight training with a visit to VERT 3 times a week through the summer. A combination of this type of workout and a high level of beach volleyball practice partners will improve your beach volleyball game!